Yellowstone Caldera

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‘Yellowstone Caldera’

Yellowstone, the world’s first National Park, is the site of a “supervolcano” that only erupts every half million years or so – which is fortunate as its prehistoric eruptions devastated much of North America! Today the heat generated by Yellowstone’s vast magma chamber is slowly dissipated by the world’s most extensive and spectacular array of geothermal features. Within Yellowstone’s huge caldera are the vast majority of the world’s geysers, including all the largest ones – Steamboat, Giant, Great Fountain, Grand, and of course Old Faithful. Full scale eruptions of Steamboat (the world’s largest geyser at up to 350 feet tall) and Giant are rare, although minor activity is common. The voluminous Great Fountain Geyser and towering Grand Geyser - both of which can reach over 200 feet high - erupt once or twice a day, while Old Faithful erupts every 90 minutes or so, sometimes to its maximum height of 180 feet; schedules with estimated eruption times are available at Park headquarters. Other frequently erupting geysers of interest include the beautiful Castle Geyser, nearby Riverside and Daisy geysers, Beehive Geyser, Lion Geyser, White and Pink Cone geysers, and the unique Grotto Geyser complex where up to 5 geysers may erupt simultaneously. In addition to hundreds of active geysers there are countless fantastically colored boiling pools, the most spectacular of which is the Grand Prismatic Spring – best viewed from up a nearby hillside. Mammoth Hot Springs has some of the most extensive and beautiful silica terraces in the world. On top of all this, Yellowstone is North America’s Serengeti, with buffalo, elk, moose, antelope, bears, and wolves all regularly seen; plus the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River is one of the world’s most spectacular canyons. Yellowstone is definitely one of the most amazing places on earth, with so much to offer that it deserves at least a 10 day visit.

5 / 5 Review by expert member Mike Lyvers

‘Yellowstone’

Underneath Yellowstone National Park is one of the earths biggest supervolcanoes, and scientific studies have recently shown that seismic activity there is increasing. The whole Yellowstone system is expected to blow at some point in an eruption 2,500 times that of St. Helens in 1980, that would cover North America in ash. Scientists believe Yellowstone’s eruption cycle is once every 600,000 years, and it’s been 640,000 years since the last one… Supervolcanoes usually lie dormant for several thousand years before erupting, but increased earthquake activity means that this may occur sooner than was thought, however other scientists see the recent activity as normal fluctuation and say that there is no eruption in the foreseeable future. Those facts and the hot spring and geysers created by the magma only a few kilometres beneath the surface make Yellowstone an important volcanic site to visit.

3 / 5 Review by expert member Hamish Holl